The info is not available outside of Southwest's internal system, and that's exactly the way they want it. If you could easily comparison shop Southwest's fares with other airlines, you would realize that they're rarely the cheapest option.

ExpertFlyer does have the list of published fares for each route, but since Southwest does not make the fare bucket availability info available outside their internal systems, you can't use the list of published fares to determine the fare you can get on any particular flight.

The only place to find SWA fares is at Southwest.com. Why??? Because they refuse to spend the dough to get in on Orbitz, Travelocity, Etc, ad nauseum... no extra money spent on advertising, no extra costs to you... Southwest.com. Um, could I please have another shot of koolaid? Please?

I'm sure that's part of the reason. SW didn't like the fact that the search sites were listing airlines that pay a commision first. Some of the sites didn't check availability and just displayed the lowest published fare. Passengers got upset when they couldn't book the rate that was displayed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by justageek

The info is not available outside of Southwest's internal system, and that's exactly the way they want it. If you could easily comparison shop Southwest's fares with other airlines, you would realize that they're rarely the cheapest option.

The info is not available outside of Southwest's internal system, and that's exactly the way they want it. If you could easily comparison shop Southwest's fares with other airlines, you would realize that they're rarely the cheapest option.

ExpertFlyer does have the list of published fares for each route, but since Southwest does not make the fare bucket availability info available outside their internal systems, you can't use the list of published fares to determine the fare you can get on any particular flight.

That's very true. Sure, Southwest has a lot of routes that other airlines don't even fly... I mean, Harlington, TX? Yeah, ok. But on the routes that they actually compete, they are RARELY the lowest.

That's very true. Sure, Southwest has a lot of routes that other airlines don't even fly... I mean, Harlington, TX? Yeah, ok. But on the routes that they actually compete, they are RARELY the lowest.

I think that's a gross exaggeration, while Southwest isn't always the cheapest, I'd be the first to admit that, I'd sure be reluctant to claim they are rarely the cheapest. To test your theory, I'm going to pick five trips I've taken over the past year from here in Kansas City and price them on Southwest then Orbitz, not very scientific, but let's give it a try:

Kansas City - Las Vegas February 23-Febraury 25
Southwest - $399.30 (wow, I only fly this on Dings usually)
Orbitz - $379 on multiple carriers (CO there, America West connecting to AA on the way back), $426 on a single carrier

The Orbitz fares include their $5 fee, right? So most of those would be effectively the same on the other airline's site. Also many legacies' fare sales expire May 10: just a coincidence that that's the end of WN's available schedule?

Not claiming a lot of knowledge here, just observing: WN sets many baseline low fares, although sometimes other competition keeps them down. You might find that WN's low fare buckets sell out sooner, though.

Or they never had inventory to begin with. A common criticism of the legacy carriers over the years has been that deep discounts are advertised but not allocated in reasonable quantity. You know, like saver award seats but not nearly so bad. But here's the flip side:

With its flight-by-flight pricing, offering dramatically different prices for different times on the same date, Southwest can bleed other airlines who attempt to match the lowest price. Those other airlines offer free same-day standby and therefore cannot maintain as high an intra-day price differential.

I think that's a gross exaggeration, while Southwest isn't always the cheapest, I'd be the first to admit that, I'd sure be reluctant to claim they are rarely the cheapest. To test your theory, I'm going to pick five trips I've taken over the past year from here in Kansas City and price them on Southwest then Orbitz, not very scientific, but let's give it a try:

Kansas City - Las Vegas February 23-Febraury 25
Southwest - $399.30 (wow, I only fly this on Dings usually)
Orbitz - $379 on multiple carriers (CO there, America West connecting to AA on the way back), $426 on a single carrier